How likely is it that I brought bed bugs home after a hotel stay? I’m freaking out.
I recently went on a 10-day trip to London. We spent the first four nights at a hotel in Soho and the remaining six nights at a hotel in the City of London area. During our first hotel stay, I checked the bed for bed bugs and found absolutely no signs of them. No bugs, no bites, nothing.
When we arrived at our second hotel, around 8 PM, I completely forgot to inspect the bed. We left almost immediately to explore Tower Bridge and didn’t return until after 11 PM. By the time we settled in, it was around 1 AM.
At 7 AM, I woke up to a bug crawling on my pillow. I wear contacts, so I couldn’t see it clearly, but it looked like a roach or beetle. My boyfriend was still asleep, so I put my contacts in and started inspecting his side of the bed. It didn’t take long before I spotted a very clear picture of a bed bug crawling on the sheets next to him (i will insert pic although it probably is blurry) . I then found another one that was clearly at a different life stage. In total, I saw two more, possibly three if you count the one on my pillow.
We immediately requested a room change. Before moving us, the hotel washed and dried all of our clothes. We also purchased new hard-shell luggage and discarded our old fabric suitcases. We kept our two original hard-shell suitcases, which the hotel heat-treated. Before entering the new room, we thoroughly inspected it and found nothing. We continued checking throughout the remaining six nights and never saw another bug.
When we finally arrived home, we took several precautions. We immediately brought all the clothes that had already been washed and dried by the hotel to a laundromat, where we washed them on hot for 30 minutes and dried them on high heat for 40 minutes.
While the clothes were being washed, we bagged our luggage and left it in our garage. I live in an apartment, so the garage is completely separate from the building and isn’t connected to our living space. We then placed all the clean clothes from the laundromat into trash bags and left them in the garage for five days, on the opposite side from where we had stored the luggage.
For toiletries that we couldn’t throw away, I carefully inspected everything with a flashlight and wiped it down with 91% isopropyl alcohol. I did the same with other belongings, including chargers, computers, iPads, and books. We also left these items in our car for a couple of days in the Texas heat.
Before entering our apartment, we stripped outside and immediately took the clothes we were wearing to the dryer. We dried them on high heat, washed them on high, and then dried them on high again. Our shoes were bagged outside and placed in the garage on the same side as the luggage.
After leaving everything alone for a couple of days, I eventually brought the clothes inside and immediately put them through another high-heat drying cycle. Anything else I brought into the apartment was wiped down and thoroughly inspected.
Since coming home, I’ve also been steaming and thoroughly inspecting my apartment, especially our beds and mattresses, almost every other day. I’ve repeatedly checked the mattress seams, bed frames, and surrounding areas and steamed them as an extra precaution. I know this probably sounds crazy, but I’ve become so paranoid about bringing them home that I feel like I can’t stop checking.
Now, my biggest concern is the bites.
None of us had any bites while we were at the infested hotel or immediately after returning home. My boyfriend started developing bites around 8–9 days after the exposure. I didn’t start getting bites until exactly 14 days after exposure.
My boyfriend initially had bites all over his body, but I only had three bites in a straight line. On day 15, I developed another three bites, all on the same arm, and on day 16, I noticed one more bite on my neck.
My boyfriend hasn’t developed any new bites since the initial ones, and his existing bites are actually healing.
I’m freaking out because I thought bite reactions were only supposed to take up to 14 days to appear. Is it possible to continue developing new bites after that? Or could these delayed reactions still be from the original exposure?
Given all the precautions we took, how likely is it that we brought bed bugs home? I’m honestly starting to feel like every little piece of lint touching me is a bug, and I can’t stop itching or worrying. It’s gotten to the point where I’m having trouble sleeping and feel like I’m going crazy.
I’d really appreciate any insight, especially from anyone who has experienced something similar.